Effective Research-Based Prevention Programming for Teens The Essence of Youth to Youth

Conventional wisdom suggests that preventing problems before they start makes sense. However, the field of prevention has suffered from fragmentation, lack of resources, and a paucity of rigorous research. Most Americans support prevention in theory but lack an understanding of what is effective for a number of reasons. Prevention research is poorly funded and can be difficult to interpret. Findings published in academic journals generally appear years after the research has been completed. The result is a public that lacks a sound scientific foundation from which to advocate for prevention, leaving prevention funding vulnerable to the vagaries of politics (Falco, 1996). Many approaches to substance abuse prevention have been attempted over the years, but only in the past decade has enough evidence been gathered to demonstrate the potential of prevention approaches. This evidence emerges from studies testing the efficacy of primary prevention strategies designed to affect the social and psychological factors believed to promote the initiation of substance use and later abuse. Prevention is a broad concept with no one universally accepted definition. Prevention interventions fall along a continuum ranging from primary prevention to treatment creating ambiguity and confusion regarding what is meant by prevention. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (1995) defines prevention as: * The promotion of constructive lifestyles and norms that discourage drug use * The development of social and physical environments that facilitate drug-free lifestyles They conclude that “prevention is achieved through the application of multiple strategies; it is an ongoing process that must relate to each emerging generation. ” Although extremely general, this definition is useful in that it emphasizes the use of multiple strategies affecting those environmental and individual factors that tend to promote or support the initiation of drug use and subsequent patterns of drug abuse. Evaluation of prevention programs supports the CSAP definition. The Nationa